ALE and Giant Taiwan Team Up on Formosa

Heavy lift specialist ALE and Giant Taiwan have undertaken a joint venture to provide the onshore handling, transportation, and storage of wind turbine foundations for phase 2 of Taiwan’s Formosa 1 wind farm project.

This phase is seeing 20 Siemens Gamesa 6MW wind turbines installed 6 kilometres off Miaoli County in the Taiwan Strait, raising its power generation capability from its current 8MW to 128MW.

ALE – Giant’s scope in the project included, among others, the transportation and load-out of monopiles from their point of fabrication in Rostock, Germany, the development of earthquake-resilient storage facilities at the Port of Taichung, Taiwan, and the load-in of both monopiles and transition pieces there.

These items are currently in the process of installation by the offshore vessel Seaway Yudin.

“By establishing ALE – Giant we have fast tracked our localization and have been able to offer ALE’s world class services, safety and quality standards while being seen as a local partner from day one,” Chris Schraa, director of ALE Taiwan, said.

The total project is scheduled to have a duration of eight months. The Formosa 1 Phase 2 offshore wind farm is expected to be fully built by the end of the year and fully operational in 2020.

Yannick Sel, director of Global Strategic Sales, said: “This is truly a winning combination in which ALE brings its knowledge built up in the offshore wind industry in Europe and Giant complements it with valuable local connections and expertise.”